Not long ago that's what a buyer asked after an offer I wrote was accepted. But the fact is I think my cover letter had a lot to do with their offer getting accepted. I'd heard of agents getting a buyer to write a letter and perhaps that might work sometime, but not all buyers want to do that. Some are just all business.

And recently, although I really expected some of our terms to countered (I thought it was a fair price to offer) because they were "out there". We asked for a repair right up front before our home inspection. The buyers felt they could have the inspector check the repair that way. So we asked for an extra long due diligence period.

There is no "customary" number of days a buyer has an option (due diligence period) in Georgia. It's a blank in the GAR contract and agents fill in the blank with a number of days. That time period is for any and all inspections, and anything else a buyer wants it to be used for as well. Frankly they can get their mama to come "approve" the house before she "gifts" down payments funds if they want to. Long story short during the due diligence period a buyer can back out of the contract without forfeiting their earnest money for ANY reason.

But back to that offer. The listing agent eventually let me know that the sellers had actually turned down an offer for more money than our offer. They said it was the letter, the very professional letter explaining our offer. The letter stated why my buyers wanted to purchase that house... reasons from it fitting their lifestyle to it being close to family members. It explained the conditions and special stipulations that our buyers requested and thanked the sellers for the opportunity to view their home multiple times. And we backed up our "offer price" with recently sold comparable homes in the same area with adjustments made for differences.

I've been selling real estate in this area for 25 years now and I've never once received a letter with an offer on my listing from the other agent. In fact I find that many local agents treat the buyers they work with as a "customer" and not a "client" therefore not being allowed to advise them legally in many areas of their offer.

So no, Mr. Buyer, you didn't offer too much. We just worked as a team and explained your offer and how much you wanted THIS house. The seller looked at the numbers and decided he was willing to sell it for the good offer we wrote even though a few weeks ago he said no to more money from a different buyer. Of course having that pre-approval letter in the package was helpful too.

At Lane Realty we work hard to represent our clients to the best of our ability.Sometimes that means taking an extra step and providing the other party with enough information to make an informed decision. We care that you don't pay too much if you are our buyer. That's why we always run a CMA before we type up an offer. And sometimes when we think we're going to get a counter... a seller will surprise us with an acceptance.